Workers with Health Care for the Homeless offer water, education and treatment to unsheltered New Mexicans in Albuquerque in response to high heat risk. (Courtesy of Health Care for the Homeless / Sara Lucero)
Parts of New Mexico will get their first encounters with intense heat this weekend, including projected temperatures of 103 and 104 degrees in Las Cruces.
The temperatures will be dangerously hot in some places, according to the National Weather Service’s Heat Risk Map. The map takes into account how unusual the heat is at a given time of year, how long it will last into the day and night and whether those temperatures pose a higher risk of heat-related impacts based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Local New Mexico officials told Source New Mexico earlier this week that they’re monitoring for heat threats and ready to take action during extreme heat.
Rio Rancho, Albuquerque and Las Cruces recently topped a USA Today analysis of cities with the largest increase of high-heat days — 90 degrees and upward — since 1985: 39, 36 and 31 more such days, respectively.
According to the Heat Risk Map, areas in and around Las Cruces will be so hot that they’ll turn from “red” to “magenta” beginning Monday, June 16. Areas can reach this “extreme” level of heat with rare or long-duration extreme heat with little overnight relief.
Heat at the “magenta” level “affects anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration. Impacts likely in most health systems, heat-sensitive industries and infrastructure,” the National Weather Service warns.
Despite the extreme temperatures predicted, local officials in Las Cruces told Source that, as of Wednesday, they did not plan to extend cooling center hours, unless a power outage or further needs arise.
Doña Ana Assistant County Manager Steven Lopez said recent temperatures have not reached a threshold of 105 degrees on the heat index. The county requires those high temperatures for several days to provide additional cooling sites, he said.
Dangerously hot temperatures forecasted in the coming days have nonprofit advocates and providers bracing for “life or death” impacts to unhoused people in New Mexico’s largest cities. Advocates said governments at all levels need policies, funding and data to better address the threat.